I'm excited about this. I actually wouldn't mind if Waze was shut down instead of the 3-year period, as long as Google assimilated all of its technology.
It would be fantastic to have Google both data mining traffic data (as it does now) and also combining this with user-volunteered traffic reports. Each technology has something to offer the other, and it will be really cool to bring in the best of both worlds. I'm very confident about this acquisition, it feels like it wasn't just an acqui-hire.
I really don't see Google incorporating all the Waze functionality. Waze is pretty bandwidth-intensive. And I could see some liability issues with presenting crowdsourced data directly on Gmaps.
I feel like this was simply a "keep Waze out of the hands of our competitors" move, and now it will die a slow death like most other Google acquisitions.
It would be fantastic to have Google both data mining traffic data (as it does now) and also combining this with user-volunteered traffic reports. Each technology has something to offer the other, and it will be really cool to bring in the best of both worlds. I'm very confident about this acquisition, it feels like it wasn't just an acqui-hire.